当前学界越来越意识到麻醉药物并非通过广泛抑制大脑功能发挥全身麻醉作用，而是有着特定的作用核团和网络机制。麻醉阻断了外部信息向大脑皮层的传递，作为内外部信息在高级中枢上下交换的枢纽性核团丘脑，尤其是丘脑内部的GABA能调控区域丘脑网状核(TRN)，应该在全身麻醉过程中有着重要的作用。我们前期研究发现1.TRN头端毁损后大鼠对丙泊酚敏感性显著提高，2.TRN头端和尾端在丙泊酚麻醉过程中发生了不同的功能变化，提示TRN内部子核团之间存在相互作用，且可能是丙泊酚麻醉机理的关键。本课题拟在此基础上，通过核团定位、基因检测、膜片钳记录等方法，重点探讨1.TRN内部子核团在丙泊酚全麻过程中的角色，并尝试使用病毒示踪和基因敲除动物模型，分析2.丙泊酚对TRN内部子核团GABA能神经元兴奋性和突触传递活动的影响，从而提出可能的以TRN头端为始动作用核团，TRN内部子核团相互作用的丙泊酚全身麻醉新机制。

Nowadays, accumulating research indicates that anesthetics-induced general anesthesia is not due to a global depression of brain function, but they should act on different and specific brain regions, also neural circuits. Anesthesia blocks the transmission of external information to the brain cortex, so the thalamus as the “hub” for ascending and descending information to and from the cortex, especially the GABAergic regulative area Thalamus Reticular Nucleus (TRN) within the thalamus, should play an important role during general anesthesia. Our preliminary data showed that, sensitivity of rats to propofol increased significantly after lesion of anterior TRN neurons with ibotenic acid, while anterior and caudal TRN showed different functional changes during propofol induced general anesthesia, which totally suggested us that there's interaction within thalamic reticular subnetworks and probably was the key machanism of propofol induced general anesthesia. According to the theories and these results, we aim to clarify the exact role of thalamic reticular subnetworks in propofol-induced anesthesia, and examine the effect of propofol on the excitability and synaptic transmission of GABAergic neurons within thalamic reticular subnetworks in this project, with neuron positioning, gene detection and patch clamp recording et al. We also attempt to analyze excitability of GABAergic neuron in thalamic reticular subnetworks and influence of synaptic transmission to propofol. After all, we propose that there should be an anterior TRN originated and interactive thalamic reticular subnetworks involved mechanism for propofol-induced general anesthesia.